Genuflecting in the House of Smith

This is  interesting news concerning Elliott Smith’s old car in Austin.  His sister Ashley, who has been driving the Volkswagen Passat for the last 5 years, put the car up for sale and donated the money to the SIMS foundation, an Austin facility that helps local musicians sober up. The full story of her decision to sell the car is here.

Elliott Smith ranks  up there with my all-time, if-the-house-were-on-fire-I’d-run-back-in-to-save-the-records favorites. He’s well known for the anguish and sadness behind some (okay, most) of his lyrics, but it’s a crime to overlook the songwriting. Just solid, intelligent songwriting. Yes, in the midst of loveliness, there is some element that is unspeakably sad. His songs almost devastate the soul. But he wasn’t a pushover or whiner. He bore his soul, and that takes a tremendous amount of courage.

Shine on me baby 'cos it's raining in my heart...

And any guy who loved The Clash and worshipped The Beatles has to be the real deal.

After years of wishing, I finally made it to the Figure 8 Memorial Wall in L.A. in early June. I knew ahead of time that assholes had vandalized the wall a couple of years back, but the subsequent effort by some to restore the wall was touching. Unfortunately, the tags are still visible today, and I suppose more restorations will come in the future. Kind of makes one hesitate to add anything to the wall…but not really.

Elliott Smith Figure 8 Memorial Wall - June 2009

Had to add a tribute, even if it gets painted over

Sad

…

Saving the Pestilence

Hope. You gotta give them hope.

Turning over the apple cart. Musically.

Polyphonic, a new record label founded by Radiohead manager Brian Message, aims to give artists 50 percent of the profit to their music, and future shares are likely to grow as the music becomes successful. The full story is here. One of the collaborators of Polyphonic, Adam Driscoll, went so far as to say: “Giving an album away for free may get one million people listening to a new artist.”

Imagine that. Equitable profit-sharing with the artist themselves. Embracing new technology to reach a mass audience. Focusing on the music.

Don’t pinch me. Let me dream…